


miles to go before we sleep

by dying_light



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Clip will rise, F/F, Lexa the Friendly Chip, Post 3x14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 02:27:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6835267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dying_light/pseuds/dying_light
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the utter failure of their quest to implant the chip in Luna, Bellamy can see only one option left for them and wants to destroy the Flame. Needless to say, Clarke strenuously disagrees with his plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	miles to go before we sleep

"Now what?"

It was a simple enough question. One that Clarke had no real answer to.

Their immediate course of action was obvious. ALIE had been in the Boat People's heads, she would know about the beach and the signal fire and no doubt some of her brainwashed minions were already on their way to collect them and the Flame. They had to move.

Thankfully they'd found the rover where they'd left it, seemingly untouched and intact although low on battery power thanks to the persistently overcast conditions, and were able to use it to put enough of a distance between themselves and the beach that Bellamy wasn't overly concerned when the rover lost power and they were forced to stop to camp for the night.

Once again, they found themselves dejectedly sitting around a fire in silence. No one spoke because no one knew what to say. Bellamy watched Clarke from across the fire as she sat staring reverently at the chip she held in her cupped hands as if it held all the answers. He wondered if she even knew they were there.

That damn chip. The thing that had sent them on a wild goose chase, wasting precious time while their people suffered. The reason why ALIE would never stop hunting them down. Clarke was obsessed with it and he knew that she would never do what he knew needed to be done. But maybe if he just talked to her, he could convince her and they could it. Together.

Bellamy pushed himself up off the fallen log he'd been sharing with Jasper and moved to stand over Clarke, she didn't even give him the courtesy of acknowledging his presence which only served to incense him further.

"We need to talk."

Clarke looked up at him with the same despondent, empty look in her eyes that he’d seen all too often since she’d returned from Polis. What the hell did Lexa do to her there? 

"About what?"

"About what we're going to do with that."

The moment he gestured to the chip, Clarke's hand closed protectively around it. She shot to her feet, unconsciously slipping into a defensive stance. "There's nothing to talk about."

But Bellamy would not be dissuaded. "We need to destroy it."

All of a sudden the fire sparked in Clarke's eyes. "That's not going to happen. You heard Raven, the Flame is the only thing that can stop ALIE."

"Yeah," Jasper agreed, he and Octavia now both on their feet. "Let's not go doing anything crazy."

Bellamy shook his head. "It was the only thing that would stop ALIE when there was a still a Nightblood to put it in. Without Luna, it's useless to us and it's putting us all in danger. I know I'm not the only one thinking it."

Clarke shook her head in denial.

"Clarke, we have to destroy it."

"No. We don't."

"If ALIE gets her hands on it-"

"Lexa is in there-"

"Lexa's dead!" Bellamy roared in frustration, leaving Clarke reeling. He took advantage of her shock, lunging forward and snatching the chip from her grip.

"Bellamy, stop it," Octavia tried to interject.

"No, O, she needs to hear this. Lexa is gone, Clarke, and her soul or spirit or whatever primitive bullshit that the Grounders believe in, is not in here," he said, holding the chip up between his fingers, desperate to make Clarke see where he was coming from. "The only thing in here is computer code."

Chin quivering and tears beginning to well in her eyes, Clarke looked like she'd been struck. He may as well have punched her in the face. "You don't know what you're talking about," she managed to force out.

"I know that ALIE wants this, needs it to complete her plan and I know that she's not going to stop coming after us until she gets it." He looked at Clarke with pleading eyes, silently begging her to see sense. "We tried it your way but it failed. Destroying it is our only option now."

"Bellamy, give it back to me," Clarke snarled, her face hardening and her eyes narrowing dangerously.

He knew that if he did, he was never going to get an opportunity like this again. He started backing up towards the fire. "No."

"Give it back. Now."

Bellamy shook his head. "I can't do that."

Clarke saw his arm begin to extend towards to the fire, she knew what he was about to do and panicked. She couldn't let him do it. She couldn't lose her again. She had to stop him and could think of only one way to do it. " _Ascende Superius._ "

The scorching pain hit him before Bellamy could even realize what had just happened, the tendrils shot out from the chip and immediately latched onto his hand, winding around his fingers and the tips penetrating his skin, searing into him like a dozen miniature but much more powerful shock batons all attacking him simultaneously. 

He screamed, collapsing to the ground as his knees buckled, on the verge of passing out from the excruciating pain that was engulfing his right hand.

Octavia and Jasper rushed to his side, the chip lashing out at them too as they try and stop it from burrowing it's way into the flesh of Bellamy's palm. Together they tried to pry it from his hand and finally Jasper managed to seemingly push past the pain and tore it away. 

Octavia immediately smacked it from his hand before it could latch onto him instead, sending it flying and then skidding across the muddy ground.

Clarke was on her knees in an instant, scrabbling through the dirt and leaf litter until her hand closed around the Flame, her entire body sagging in relief as she brought her closed fist to her chest to hold against her wildly beating heart.

She looked up to find her friends glaring at her with betrayed eyes. Bellamy teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, tears running down his face and lash marks seared into his hand that were still burning white hot. He could barely move his fingers, it felt like he'd never be able to again. Octavia and Jasper were nursing wounds of their own.

"Clarke, what the hell was that?" Jasper exclaimed, cradling his injured hand to his chest.

"You tried to kill him," Octavia accused, crouched protectively over her sobbing brother.

"No, I didn't," Clarke denied, standing and backing away, unable to face what she'd just done. She just wanted him to give the Flame back. He wouldn't have gotten hurt if he'd just given it back. "I didn't."

Unable to bear the weight of their accusatory glares any longer, Clarke turned and she ran.

-

She ran until she came to a cliff overlooking the ocean, the light of the fire from the camp was no longer visible through the trees behind her.

Logically, she knew that she should be appalled by what she had just done, she could have killed her friend -more blood on her hands- but she didn't. How could she when she was already carrying so much guilt within her, it was just another drop in the infinite ocean. Wanheda, the Commander of Death, the once much despised title now only seemed truly appropriate. Wherever she went, death and destruction would surely follow. Whatever she did...whoever she touched...

She slumped to the ground with her back against a large rock, letting her head fall back against it and looking up at the cloudy night sky. It was going to rain again. Clarke remembers the first time she'd felt the rain on her face, it felt like a lifetime ago. She thinks it made her happy but she can't remember the feeling.

Her grip on the Flame relaxed as she unfurled her fingers to reveal it, the sacred symbol could barely be seen under the layer of filth -mud and Bellamy's blood- it had recently accumulated and Clarke used her thumb to tenderly wipe it clean.

"It's okay,” she muttered, still rubbing the Flame with her thumb, unsure of exactly who it was that she was speaking to. “You’re okay.”

Biting her lip, Clarke pulled off her gloves and settled the Flame in the middle of her right palm. " _Ascende Superius._ "

The Flame sprang to life, tendrils extending and reaching out for Clarke's fingers, some wrapping around to embrace them, others gently stroking and caressing. She can feel their warmth but don't they don’t burn, leaving a slight tingly feeling in their wake. It’s comforting.

"Hey, Heda," Clarke whispered and the light inside the Flame pulsed happily in response. A rare smile blossomed on Clarke's face. "I know you won't hurt me."

 _'I swear fealty to you, Clarke Kom Skaikru. I vow to treat your needs as my own and your people as my people.'_ The memory came unbidden and made Clarke's heart clench painfully in her chest. It also brought with it a dangerous and reckless idea.

"You would never hurt me," she breathed, the realization hitting her like a ton of bricks. If she was right, they didn't need Luna. If she was wrong...well, they were all going to die anyway. At least this way, there’d be a chance.

Carefully, Clarke extracted the Flame from her hand, warmth filling her chest as the tendrils clung to her fingers, reluctant to let go, but ultimately releasing her without causing her even a hint of pain. It deactivated voluntarily as she placed in it's case for safekeeping.

It's a crazy idea, one born of desperation and despair, but desperate times called for desperate measures and times...well, had never been more desperate.

She had seen what it had just done to Bellamy, what it had done to Emerson. What it could -should- do to her. What it didn't do to her. The Commander's spirit chooses it's worthy successor.

_'You were born for this, Clarke. Same as me.'_

Clarke gathered her hair to the side and using the scalpel Titus had given her, it's blade still stained with Lexa's blood, she cut clumsily into the back of her neck. It’s not deep enough, she knows, but she counted on the Flame being able do the rest.

She closed her eyes and steeled herself, she was under no illusion that this wasn't going to hurt, as she placed the Flame inside the cut she'd made to ease it's way.

" _Ascende Superius._ " No matter what happened now, she knew it was the last time she'd ever speak the words. Her entire body jolted in pain as the Flame springs to life and began to attach itself but it's over in an instant.

The pain was gone and suddenly the hollowness -the aching, gnawing emptiness that had been threatening to swallow her up for so long- was filled. Clarke was whole, complete in a way she'd never felt before.

But still she kept her eyes closed, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for the Flame to do to her what it did to Emerson. There is a quiet humming at the back of her skull but it doesn't hurt, it's almost comforting and, she quickly learned, easy enough to block out if she focused on the sounds of the waves crashing on the rocks below.

"Clarke."

Her eyes flew open, meeting the big green ones staring right back at her; the ghost of the girl she thought she'd never see again kneeling at her feet.

"Lexa."


End file.
